Wsense, a scaleup that develops submarine monitoring and wireless communication systems, raised 9 million euros from Swen Capital Partners, CDP Venture Capital, RunwayFBU, Axon Partners Group, Katapult Ocean, CoreAngels Climate, and Moonstone (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Chiara Petrioli (ceo and 75.27% owner) founded the company that in 2022 received the acceleration support of EIT DIgital. In 2022, Wsense raised seed resources worth 4 million from CDP Venture Capital (6.68% owner). Mario Scuderi, a managing director of CDP Venture, is a board member of the company.
Italian smart glass startup Out Of raised 7.6 million euros through an equity crowdfunding campaign on Mamacrowd and decided to increase the target to 8 million on the ground of a pre-money value of 40 million (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The company attracted the resources of 544 investors, including FFI (Ferrari Family Investments). Azimut Eltif – Venture Capital ALIcrowd poured 1.5 million in Out Of. FNDX, IN3 Ventures and Gianni & Origoni assisted the company.
Italian engineering firm Teoresi Group raised to 100% its 15% of IoT Solutions, IoT Solutions, a provider of technologies for smart buildings (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Deloitte Legal and STS Deloitte assisted the buyer. Valter Brasso is the chairmna and ceo of Teoresi of which he owns a 72.88%. The company also belongs to Franco Moschini (20.94%) and Maresenda (6.5%) and has sales of 56.5 million euros, an ebitda of 4.5 million, net cash of 20.2 million, and equity of 30 million.
Nextai, the owner of Spoki (a tool for the WhatsApp communication) attracted an unsdisclosed amount of resources from Magic Mind, a programme of Digital Magics for AI startups, Smart4tech spa, a vehicle of Smart Capital, and private investors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Magic Mind, an accelerator that program director and portfolio & deal manager Maria Imbesi heads, aims to support 10 new compaies each year with a financing facility of up to 0.22 million eurs. Giorgio Pagliara is the ceo of Nextai.
Venture builder Enzima 12 launched 12Venture, an Italian startup studio for the edtech and hrtech sectors (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Further to 12Venture, Enzima 12 is also supporting Skills, AG Training, Darwin, Evergon, Funding42, Formatori Italiani, and Dokimazo. Fabrizio Gallante is the managing partner of Enzima12 and 12Venture.
Biova Project, a producer of artisanal beer with a circular economy approach, attracted the resources of Agrofood BIC (Business Innovation Center) (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Biova Project launched an an equity crowdfunding campaign on Mamacrowd for raising 0.48 million euros. Agrofood BIC poured 0.1 million in the company which also received 0.1 million from Arafin and now targets to raise 1.64 million on the ground of a pre-money value of 6 million. Franco Dipetro and Emanuela Barbano founded Biova in 2019. The company will invest the raised proceeds in its organic development. Riccardo Piaggi is the chairman of Agrifood BIC.
Italian crowdfunding platforms Build Bull, Concrete Investing and Fundera received the authorization to operate in Europe, the firms said (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Bull Build is a platform for real estate that FolkFunding Benefit Company developed that received such authorization before being operative, CrowdfundingBuzz said. Deloitte assisted Bull Build. Concrete is a real estate platform as well. Fundera is a crowdfunding platform for the primary markets online placement of minibonds that belongs to Frigiolini & Partners Merchant, an advisory firm that Leonardo Frigiolini founded (see here the 2022 BeBeez Report about Fintech Platform, 1H23 BeBeez Report about Fintech Platform and the January – August 2023 BeBeez Private Debt Report available for the subscribers to BeBeez News Premium and BeBeez Private Data).
Lombardy’s Economic Development Councillor Guido Guidesi said that the Region launched the following programmes worth a total of 72 million euros for supporting the startups: StartCup Lombardia 2023, Premio Nazionale dell’Innovazione, Sostegno all’Equity Crowdfunding per StartCup Lombardia, Skydeck Europe Milano, Programma ESA BIC Milano, Microcredito, and Bando Nuova Impresa (see here a previous post by BeBeez). ESA BIC Milano is a programme of the Lombardy Region and Milan Polytechnic University aimed at creating a Business Incubation Centre for supporting 25 startups. Microcredito will be available from January 2024 and have resources of 24 million. Nuova Impresa has resources of 5 million. Start Cup is a competition for start ups that Regione Lombardia launched with Bocconi University, Milano-Bicocca, Polytechnic, the incubators and MUSA. Six winners will receive 0.15 million for projects in the fields of ICT & Services, Industrial Technologies, CleanTech & Energy, and Life Sciences & MedTech. Skydeck Europe Milano, is an international acceleration programme that UC Berkeley SkyDeck (Berkeley University), Cariplo Factory and Australia’s LendLease launched in 2021.
